The American composer Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000) long traveled highly individualistic compositional terrain, unaffected by the trends of the twentieth century, writing music of sublime beauty. Combining elements of Oriental and Armenian music with his own personal modal style, his music achieves a mystic quality, which to the casual
listener might border on ‘New Age’. While Hovhaness’ compositions may contain a harmonic language similar to that genre, they also encompass beautiful landscapes full of tightly wound canons, expansive chorales, and the balanced architecture of classical form.